Tag Archives: Spain

Now that I’m back in a non-shared sleeping space and don’t have to rent a towel, I can reflect on the many types of accommodation I’ve used. I’ve been welcomed into homes, which were always my favorite, and stayed in some very cute budget hotels and AirBnB rooms.

Our hotel room in Litochoro–NOT a hostel. They upgraded our room to a triple with a balcony…

But much of my travel and time was spent in hostels. Here are my five favorite hostels I stayed in during my nearly eight-month stint traveling Europe.

Click on the name of the hostel in the header to get to their site, which has all their details and current pricing!

Know when you watch a trailer, and the movie is totally NOT what you were expecting? Well, at Art Hole Hostel I totally got what I wanted–and expected–from their description. On their description for Hostelworld and Hostelbookers, they clearly say they are not a party hostel and are great for solo travellers.

This was absolutely true on both counts. With a great location nearby to bars, guests could go out and dance the night away or party to their heart’s content, but quiet hours started at midnight and were pretty well enforced, meaning those of us who wanted to stay in (read: I am an old grandma and like my beauty sleep) or go to bed before 3 a.m. could do so.

Plus, they don’t book big groups, and it was really easy to chat with other travelers there. AND breakfast is included–WITH protein! Cute little hard boiled eggs in egg cups right in the kitchen, ready for your enjoyment.

I also loved the look of the place; it’s in a big old building with wood floors and high ceilings, and the lockers were big enough for me to fit my entire bag into it.

The cons? The number of bathrooms is a little low compared to the number of folks staying there, and for those of you who are unwieldy packers, you’ll have to lug your stuff up a few flights of stairs, as there is no elevator.

I originally started this post by writing about how lucky I’ve been in my travels, about how I’ve avoided many unfortunate specific travel-related misfortunes but I am superstitious enough that I don’t want to tempt fate or the travel gods by listing them. As Michael Scott would say, “I’m not superstitious. But I’m a little stitious.”

Sometimes travel can be tricky when you’re a blond like me…

Suffice to say I’ve been safe and relatively timely, whether that’s due to luck or smart travel. I hope for the latter. But even for the lucky traveler, those moments of panic happen. Often, it’s because we’re not thinking clearly…

Here are three that come to mind right away…

3. Just the other night I went to check us in online for our flight to Croatia. It was 7:10 p.m. and our flight left the next evening. I clicked through the usual screens, entered my name and surname, airport of departure, the whole thing. But a red error message came up saying RESERVATION DOES NOT MATCH NAME, and even worse, the flight listed to Zagreb was for an hour from then. What the eff!?

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long…we went caving in Parrano, which entailed harnessing ourselves so we could climb down the mountian on ladders and then into the actual caves, where some places required us to crawl on our bellies through guano to get to the next chamber…good stuff…

Fall break started last Thursday, and my friends Meghan and Matt are doing a mini-tour through Spain. We started in Seville, which is a city of flamenco and bullfighting and rooftop terraces…The weather was perfect, and one memorable night we sat atop the roof, ate homemade couscous and listened to some other hostel guests jam with their guitars, flamenco style…incredible. We saw the Cathedral (holy crap, is all I have to say) and the juderia neighborhood of Santa Cruz and the bull ring and a flamenco show…the flamenco show was incredible. There was a singer, a guitarist, and 2 dancers. The singer, who could not have been older than 25, sang with such emotion and power that it seemed that his face aged to match the sorrow and intensity of his song. The male dancer was clearly more experienced and i can’t say I’ve ever seen a man’s feet move so fast…

Granada is cheap and permeates the North African influence that ruled it for centuries. Today we saw the Alhambra, which took literally 5 hours, and yesterday was the Albayzin, the old Muslim neighborhood that houses the last mosque in Granada.

last night when nate arrived i had just taken a nap and so we went to eat and had a scary experience at the restaurant–there was this guy at the bar who either had a seizure and fell or fell and hit his head, causing a seizure. his head had cracked and so blood was gushing out, i´m just sitting there in the booth trying not to gag or pass out from the blood and nate, being the good guy and lifeguard he is, went to help. he was trying to tell them to keep him on his side in spanish but the bartender moved him and he hit his head and bled even more. then hte bartender took a knife and tried to put it between the guy´s teeth to keep him from choking on his own blood and vomit and the guy came to and grabbed the knife–it was just a dinner knife but still–and got up and started kind of going after the people standing around, which included nate and me so we kind of ran away and went back later to pay our bill. when we went back, an old man at the bar told us he thought the guy was on drugs or something–i think thats what he said–and that´s why he reacted that way with the knife. it was kind of freaky, but i was proud of nate for helping. we got gelato and then came back to go to bed.

hola a todos, estoy en espana. after a very very very long day and a half or so of travel i made it safely to barcelona. i got to see some of the german countryside on my way to the hahn airport, and it was beautiful. i had an adventure with my bag on one of the busses, as in, i forgot it and had a little óhmygodwhereismystuffi´mgonnacry moment but i found the driver and he gave me my bag back. it then took me about 15 minutes to find the metro, but after that i found my hostel fine. the whole time i´d been doing really well, feeling really confident about my travel prowess, until that moment with the bag. i had this overwhelming feeling of howcanisurviveineuropeforthenextfourmonths but that has passed.

one of the big differences about the us and here is organization. at home, if a line needs to be formed, it is a line. at the hahn airport there were supposed to be 2 lines, and i guess 2 lines really means mob, because it was just 150 people in a big clump. also, on the ryanair flight it was kind of funny because the head flight attendant was trying to do the safety presentation and he shushed people. that was funny. and when he landed, everyone clapped (it was a bumpy landing).

i slept for a few hours and i´m feeling pretty decent, althoúgh i´m starving. just waiting for nate to arrive before we head out to dinner. ay dios mio, i still can´t believe i´m in europe!